BP AT THE CROSSROADS ON CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE BUT YET TO MOVE

WASHINGTON, 19 May 1997

Greenpeace Response to British Petroleum Statement on Climate Change (Speech to be given by John Browne, CEO British Petroleum 19 May 1997) available on BP web site at:

http://www.bp.com/speech_051997.html

British Petroleum (BP) has come to the crossroads on the issue of global warming and climate change, but has yet to signal which way it's going to go, Greenpeace said in response to a major statement on the issue by the company chief executive officer John Browne at Stanford University today.

Greenpeace spokesperson Kalee Kreider said today the organisation welcomed BP"s recognition that action to prevent climate change is justified on the basis of the precautionary principle but points out that it is the consensus of the world's scientists (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that human- induced climate change is already "discernible."

Kreider said Greenpeace also welcomes BP's plans to expand solar power production, and its statement that with appropriate government action it will be cost competitive with conventional electricity generation within 10 years for peak demand, but point out that solar is already cost effective for much of the world's population off-grid.

"BP also fails to acknowledge the inescapable logic of our predicament - that to avoid dangerous climate change will require a phase out of fossil fuels," Kreider said. This is evidenced by BP's aggressive exploration and development of new oil fields in the Atlantic Frontier and in the Arctic.

"To continue to look for new fossil fuel reserves makes no sense when we can't afford to burn what we've already found," Kreider said. Greenpeace also condemned BP's failure to call for the agreement of legally binding national CO2 emission limits at the forthcoming Kyoto (December 1997) Climate Treaty negotiations and urged the company to give such support before the Kyoto talks.

"BP should support a 20 percent cut of CO2 emissions by industrial nations by 2005 on 1990 levels, as the minimum first step in providing protection for the climate," Kreider said.

BP also remains a member of the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) which has attempted to block international progress on efforts to reduce the greenhouse gases which cause climate change. BP is also a member of the American Petroleum Institute (which in turn is a member of the Global Climate Coalition) another set of aggressive, anti-environmental/climate change lobbying groups.

"Until and unless BP is prepared to renounce its membership in these organizations and publicly announce support for a legally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, BP's statement lacks environmental credibility," Kreider said.

"Greenpeace will therefore continue to oppose BP and other oil companies which continue to expand the oil reserves of industrial countries. However, Greenpeace will also examine opportunities to increase government expansion of solar, including work with solar producers such as BP."

Greenpeace also called upon other oil companies to come out of the industry bunker and surpass BP's environmental record on climate change.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

GREENPEACE USA CLIMATE CAMPAIGNER:
KALEE KREIDER (for outside the USA 00-1) 415-215-6210 OR MEDIA OFFICER
DEBORAH REPHAN 00-1-202-4621177

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